On Monday at 10 p.m., Spielberg’s dream becomes a reality when NBC lifts the curtain on its ambitious new musical drama, “Smash.’’
The star power behind the show doesn’t end with Spielberg, as multiple Emmy, Oscar, and Tony nominees and winners populate the cast and creative team.
Emmy winner Debra Messing (“Will & Grace’’) and Tony nominee Christian Borle (“Legally Blonde’’) star as a lyrics-and-music duo cooking up a show based on the life of Marilyn Monroe. Oscar winner Anjelica Huston portrays the producer spurring them on. Tony and Grammy winning composers Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman (“Hairspray’’) composed the series’ songs.
The veteran musical production duo of Craig Zadan and Neil Meron received the first call that Spielberg made. The pair, who have scored on the big screen (“Hairspray,’’ “Chicago’’), the stage (the current revival of “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying’’), and television (“Drop Dead Diva,’’ “A Raisin in the Sun’’), in turn placed the development in the hands of creator Theresa Rebeck, who herself had been wanting to tackle the subject for years.
Rebeck, a prolific Pulitzer Prize-nominated playwright and TV scribe for shows such as “NYPD Blue,’’ remembers the day she got the call from Spielberg to discuss “Smash’’ as a “really a good day in my life.’’
While some of the drama in “Smash’’ centers around which young actress will land the coveted role of Monroe, the seasoned Ivy Lynn (brassy Broadway vet Megan Hilty) or green-but-talented newcomer Karen Cartwright (“American Idol’’ alum Katharine McPhee), there was never any doubt that Rebeck was the right leading lady.
“Theresa’s the only person that we know who has that authenticity of writing the way Aaron Sorkin wrote ‘The West Wing.’ You felt like you were there eavesdropping on these people and you shared their personal lives,’’ says Zadan.
